r modify and rebuild package

Question

I'm trying to use the SemiMarkov package and I want to change one small line of code in there. I've done some digging via:

getAnywhere("semiMarkov")

& I've identified that I want to change this line:

hessian <- diag(ginv(hessian(V, solution)))

to try something like:

hessian <- diag(ginv(pracma::hessian(V, solution)))

How do I go about this? Do I need to rebuild the package from scratch, and if so do I need rTools etc for this, or is there a simple-ish workaround (I'm a relevant R novice)? I've done some searching online and can't find anything obvious. Any ideas/pointers gratefully appreciated.

Answer 1

If you'd like to simply test out the effect of that change in an interactive R session, you can do so using trace(). Here's how:

1. Type trace("semiMarkov", edit=TRUE)
2. In the text editor that that launches, edit the line of interest.
3. Save the modified file.
4. Close the text editor
5. Back in R, use the modified function.